Congress has joined CPI(M) in criticising “politicisation of railway development” by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
Like CPI(M), Congress is alleging that Mamata’s so-called railway gift to West Bengal was restricted to 20 Lok Sabha constituencies represented by Trinamool leaders and six constituencies represented by Congress leaders and 16 by CPI(M) men had been totally neglected.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) representatives have decided to highlight this “deliberate negligence” at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) plenary session in New Delhi on December 18.
The WBPCC representatives will also urge the Congress high command to talk to Mamata, so that she and other Trinamool leaders do not indulge in frequent bashing of senior Congress leaders in West Bengal and do not call them
“CPI(M) agents”, or “spineless bootlickers”.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, veteran Congress MP from Baharampur in Murshidabad district, said, “Mamata has totally ignored all legitimate and pending railway projects in my constituency. Whenever I protested the negligence, she or her followers called me a CPI(M) agent. I have been in politics for a very long time and my struggle against Left misrule is unquestionable. I will speak to my leadership about all this.”
Congress spokesman Nirbed Roy agreed. “Congress leaders are facing humiliation from police and CPI(M) workers. No one has heard of any top Trinamool leader facing such humiliation,” he said.
Confirming that these issues would be raised at the AICC plenary session, senior state Congress leader Abdul Mannan said the manner in which Trinamool leaders were humiliating senior Congress leaders was unbearable.
“We will ask our leadership to take some steps against this,” he said.
